Thank the Lucky Stars
by GACfan4Life
Summary: Nicole or Nikki as her friends like to call her has had a fairly easy life. But what happens when you mix a 22 year old mother, an ex-boyfriend, four of her friends, kidnappings, and a famous mobster together? Max/OC COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

Nicole entered her apartment with grocery bags in one hand and a baby carrier in another. She closed the door with her foot before heading to the kitchen with both items still in her hands. She put the bags on the counter so she could unbuckle her six month old son. Nicole put her son in the high chair so he could eat. She went to the counter and took out a six ounce Gerber baby food jar.

"How about turkey and gravy?" She asked her son while popping the lid off.

Nicole sat down in front of him and started feeding him. About half way through the jar her phone started ringing, which startled the baby.

"It's ok sweetie." She said answering the phone. "Hello?" She asked and gave the baby boy another small spoon full.

"Hey Nikki."

"Oh, hey Ira. How are you doing?"

"I'm ok."

"What's wrong?" She asked with a giggle when her baby boy scrunched his face up at his messy fingers.

"The guys want to come over and play poker..."

"And you're calling me to invite me over?" She asked bluntly.

"Well, yeah. Please Nikki, you can bring Tyler and he can sleep in one of the beds."

"I don't know Ira." She said through the receiver as she wiped her son's mouth and fingers. "Look at that, you finished it. Pretty soon you'll be a big boy."

"Feeding Tyler?"

"Yeah. Ira I'd love to go but he's been fussy the last couple of days. And with you know who being there, he's going to get irritated and yell at me for bringing Tyler. Then I'll have to punch him in the face."

"I'll make sure he doesn't. Please Nikki." Ira begged.

She sighed.

"Alright Ira, I'll be over there in a couple of hours."

"Thank you. I've actually got to go shopping. If I'm not back by the time you get there you know where the spare is right?"

"Yes Ira."

"Ok. I'll see you in a while. Bye."

"Bye."

She hung up the phone and looked at her baby boy.

"Looks like you and me are going on a field trip." She said as she picked him up and went to their room.

She sat him by his stuffed animals as she started packing his diaper bag.

_Diapers, bottled food, bottles, formula, blanket, toys, snacks and baby monitor just in case. Now I just have to pack the playpen._

She went to the living room and packed the playpen. She went back to their room and played with him for a while before they left. Nicole put Tyler in his carrier and put both the playpen bag and diaper bag on one shoulder. She walked down to the bus stop and waited. She hated taking the bus but she only had enough money for food, rent, utilities, and things that her and Tyler needed. Her parents were there for her until she got pregnant, when they found out her parents disowned her. They didn't want her to be like them and have a baby before she finished college and before she got married. The bus pulled up and she got on and sat in a vacant seat, putting Tyler by the window. She looked at Tyler before looking out the window.

_Hopefully I get to Ira's house before it starts raining._

Thirty minutes later the bus pulled up to the closest stop to Ira's house. Nicole got up with Tyler plus the things and got off the bus. She walked about five minutes until she finally reached his house. Nicole knocked on the door, no answer. She turned the door knob and it was unlocked. She walked in and sat the bags down on the floor.

"Ira?" She called loudly.

She heard something coming from the kitchen. Soon someone came out and looked at her.

"Nikki?"

"Yes T.K, it's me."

"What are you doing here?"

"Ira called and invited me over for your guys' poker night." She stated picking up the bags again and went to the big living room.

Nicole put the carrier on the couch before setting up the playpen about five feet diagonally from the fire place.

"You know that's not safe."

"What?"

"Putting a carrier on couch with a baby in it unsupervised."

"One T.K, he's asleep. Two. I made sure that it wouldn't fall. And three there's two people here in this room, he's not unsupervised." She said as the playpen done one last click, signaling that it was secure.

She went to the carrier and unstrapped Tyler and layed him in the playpen.

"When's the others getting here?" She asked turning to T.K.

He looked at the clock then back at her.

"They should be here soon."

"Why are you wearing scrubs? Are you finally an intern at the hospital?"

"You could say something like that. You want anything?"

"No." She said sitting on the couch. "And besides if I wanted something I wouldn't want you getting it for me."

"Why not?"

"You might drug me." Nicole said in a duh tone.

She knew that he was getting drugs from the hospital and shooting up. T.K mumbled and went back to the kitchen. She shook her head with a sigh and closed her eyes. She heard the front door open a few seconds later.

"This better work."

"It's gonna work. I know it's going to work. Max, go get T.K."

She heard footsteps go to the kitchen then two sets of footsteps going out of the kitchen.

"Have any trouble?" T.K asked.

"Yeah. He bit me."

"And this dumbass spilled the chloroform all over the car." Brett said.

She heard them struggling and coming into the living room. They set something down in a chair and she opened her eyes when she heard the sound of duct tape. She watched them tape something up and when boys moved enough she saw an unconscious man there. Tyler started wailing for Nicole.

"It's ok baby." She said as she picked him up rubbing his back.

"Why the fuck are these two here?"

She rolled her eyes and looked at Brett.

"Hello to you too, Brett." She said sarcastically.

Brett Campbell, Nicole's ex-boyfriend. They dated for three years until he got what he wanted. She thought he was sweet and caring but once she gave herself to him he dumped her. A month later she found out that she was pregnant with his child. Nicole caught him after his class and told him about it and he said that wasn't his problem then left her standing there alone.

"Why the hell are you here Nikki? And with that-that thing?" He asked snidely while glaring at her.

"Brett. Tyler is not a thing, he's you're son. And another thing, I can come to Ira's house any time I damn well please."

"Can we all just calm down and focus on our plan?" Avery asked trying to calm the situation down. "Hey Nikki." He finally greeted.

"Hi Avery. Why'd you guys kidnap a guy?"

"We need him for something."

"Then I better pack everything back up and head home. I'm not going to be an accessory to kidnapping."

"Nikki, you already are. Therefore you have to stay." Brett said smartly.

"Says who? You?"

"Yeah say me. If you leave I'll call the cops and they'll arrest you-"

"And they'll arrest you too. Dumbass."

"Hey. Hey. Hey, he's coming around." T.K said. "Mr. Barret, can you hear me?"

Brett took off the bag over the guy's head.

"Hi Charlie. Remember us?" Brett taunted.

"Oh brother." Nicole muttered picking up the diaper bag and went to the kitchen with Tyler on her hip.

She put the bag down on the table and went through it. Nicole heard them talking to Charlie but she ignored it.

"Let's see..." She looked at Tyler to see him chewing on his fist. "You need your teething ring."

She started going through the bag when she heard a yell and then something crash to the floor. Tyler jumped and Nicole started bouncing him up and down to get his attention again. A couple minutes later T.K and Max came in the kitchen. T.K went to the freezer to get some ice for a finger while Max leaned on the counter looking freaked out.

"Please tell me you guys didn't?"

No answer.

"Why did you kidnap him?"

"Someone took Elise." Max said going up to Nicole. "Hey there buddy." He said smiling at Tyler.

Max Minot, one of Nicole's best friends. He is dating the now kidnapped Elise. Max is the only guy friend that can make her laugh for real. During the end of her second trimester he was helping her with everything, along with Elise. Nicole trusted him with her life, some would say she was in love with him. But she couldn't because Max was dating Elise and was thinking about proposing to her.

Nicole handed Tyler off to Max so she could put the baby stuff back in the bag.

"Why would someone kidnap Elise?" She asked the two guys.

"We don't know." Max said as he lifted Tyler into the air briefly before putting the baby on his side.

"We better get back out there before Brett craps his pants." T.K said.

The three of them walked out of the kitchen and back to the living room. Nikki sat down next to Max on the arm of a chair while the others were on a couch. He had the baby sitting on his lap with Tyler's back on his chest for support. Tyler dismissed his teething ring and played with Max's right hand.

"So when's this next package?"

"Tomorrow at noon." Avery said.

"The phone, does it work?"

"What the fuck is going on in here?"

Everybody jumped except for Charlie when that voice came through the room.

"Ira, you scared me half to death." Nicole said putting her hand on her chest.

"Sorry Nikki."

"Shit Ira. You scared the shit out of us." Brett said.

"Oh, well you can imagine how I feel. I came here to lay poker, guys. That's what you told me. That's why you guys wanted to use the house, right? That's why I let you use the house. Guys, this..."He said then looked at Charlie. "That is not poker. Why is this man here? Why is he taped to my father's favorite chair? Who the hell is he?"

Everybody was completely silent while Ira went on about tracking mud into the house, having shoes on in the house, how his parents had the floors re-finished and then back to poker.

Ira Reder, Nicole's comically anal friend. He would rant and rant about something but make it sound funny.

"I don't know what's going on here...I-I don't wanna know. What I do know is, whatever the hell it is has gone way way to far. Everybody out right now, except for Nikki and Ty, they can stay."

"Whoa. Ira. Ira. Ira. Relax. Relax. Relax." Brett said going to Ira quickly.

"Give me one reason to relax."

Brett mumbled something to Ira.

"I'll take Tyler."

"You sure Nikki?"

"Yeah. I'm sure he's getting hungry anyway." She said to Max.

"There's your mom big boy." He said handing Tyler to Nicole with a smile.

She took Tyler from Max and headed to the kitchen. Once she was in the kitchen she sat down with Tyler on her lap while she went through the bag for baby formula, it was Tyler's bed time after all.

_I guess I have no choice but to stay here for the night. What could possibly go wrong?_ She thought sarcastically.


	2. Chapter 2

Nicole had put Tyler upstairs on a bed with pillows surrounding him. She also put the baby monitor up there so she could here if he woke up. She went and sat on the couch when Ira started another rant.

"You guys fucked up. Do you know who this guy is?" He whispered harshly. "I'm so sorry." He said going to the guy.

Nikki looked at the kidnapped man and it finally registered on who this man was, Charlie was Carlo Bartolucci, the famous mobster in town.

_We're all dead._

Charlie let out a short scream and Ira backed up apologizing and making excuses then went back to ranting about cutting his finger off.

"That's what they did." Charlie said.

"He's going to kill us. I mean you do understand that don't you? That's what the man does when people disrespect him. What do you think he's going to do to five assho-four assholes who cut his fucking finger off?"

"Why'd you leave out precious Nikki and that little brat?" Brett said bitterly.

"Because I know she has absolutely nothing to do with this and Ty is just a baby." He said then sat on a covered couch. "Dead. I'm a dead guy. Thanks fellas. If-if some wise guy from Jersey doesn't kill me don't sweat it because my parents will."

"Ira the kidnappers demanded two million dollars in ransom."

"That's why we need Mr. Bartolucci here to play 'show a little diplomacy' then when we get what we want we'll let him go and we will be out of the house, pal." Brett explained.

"Alright, now uh...call me crazy but this is my house. Guys don't you think you should've maybe consulted me first?"

"Christ Ira, you would've never gone for it." Max finally spoke up.

"God damn right I wouldn't. You cut the man's finger off. You guys are all fucking sick. You're all a bunch of fucking sickos, get out. C'mon let's go-"

The phone started going off and everyone looked at the phone silently and worried.

"Who knows we're here?"

"Nobody. Wrong number probably."

_Ira you are such a horrible liar._

"Did anybody tell anybody that we were going to be here?" Avery asked.

"Ira?" Max said sternly.

"No."

"Ira." Brett said mocking in a shameful tone.

"Uh, yeah. Maybe somebody. Just two guys."

Brett and Avery started freaking out while Ira started up the poker conversation again. Nicole shook her head then looked at Charlie, which he had amusement written all over his face. Then she looked over at Max and he looked at her with an expression that read 'Sorry I got you and your boy into this'.

"If y'all don't shut the hell up Ty is going to wake up." Nikki said warningly.

"Who gives a fuck."

"I bet you do Brett. It's obvious you don't want to see him but if you-"

She heard whimpering coming through the monitor then the wailing began.

"Dammit. Look what you did."

"Me?" Brett asked shocked.

Nicole left the room and went upstairs to fetch Tyler. When she went back down she heard T.K talking.

"Since I'm the closest to an M.D on this premises I will be taking care of his bodily functions."

Nicole went straight to the kitchen, she didn't want to know. Nikki took the teething ring out of the fridge and sat down at the table.

"Here ya go baby boy."

Tyler took the ring and put it in his mouth. A second later he threw it on the ground and wailed in pain. She pulled him up to her chest and rubbed his back soothingly.

"I know it hurts baby, I know. But crying doesn't make it better."

He started to calm down after a few minutes. She took out some Gerber Graduates puffs out of the bag and started to walk out of the kitchen when Ira and Max came through.

"Is the little man ok?" Max asked.

"Yeah. He's just got a tooth coming in." She said walking back into the kitchen.

"Poor guy." He said looking at Tyler with sympathy before pulling eggs and brownie mix out of a paper bag. "What are we supposed to do with this?" He asked Ira.

"I was going to make brownies." Ira said snatching the eggs away from Max.

"Good idea."

Tyler let out a painful whine.

"Max, can you hand me his teething ring?"

He picked up the teething ring from the counter and stood slightly behind Nicole. Max handed Tyler the ring with a little smile.

"There ya go little man."

Nikki could feel Max's body heat radiating off of him, that's how close he was. Tyler took the ring, put it in his mouth and gave a disgusted look.

Maybe I have some gum numbing gel in his bag. Can you hold him for a sec?"

Max happily took Tyler while Nikki started looking through the diaper bag.

"There it is." She said pulling it out.

"Nikki, I've got to vacuum because some people drug in mud." Ira said referring to the guys.

"That's fine. Tyler won't cry over that." She said knowing what Ira was getting at.

Ira left the kitchen and began vacuuming. Max went to the table with Tyler on his hip.

"Your momma's got something for you." He said smiling at Tyler.

Nicole put some gel on her finger and rubbed it on Tyler's bottom gum.

"All done." She said smiling at her son as she put the small tube back in the bag.

She looked up at Max and saw that he was staring at her.

"What?" She asked confused.

"Nothing."

He was standing close to her again.

"Why are you holding that brat?"

Nicole rolled her eyes and glared at Brett.

"He has every right to hold Tyler."

"Why? That thing is my son."

"Your son?"

"That's what I said Nikki."

"How exactly is he your son? Just because you knocked me up doesn't make Tyler yours. You weren't there for the pregnancy. You ran like a scared little boy when I told you. So don't be calling Tyler yours."

"Max isn't Tyler's dad either and he's holding him."

"Brett, Max has every right to hold Tyler, you don't until you start acting like a responsible adult." She said getting up.

Max handed Tyler off to Nikki and the three of them left the kitchen. She put her baby boy in the playpen and he started chewing on his stuffed horse. The guys started playing pool and Nicole sat on the couch looking through an old magazine.

"I need a drink." Charlie said about halfway through the pool game that was going on.

"Why don't I get you a drink. That's a good idea." Max said walking out of the living room.

"Max it's just that mixing alcohol and pain medication it leads-"

"Yeah."

"You should listen to him Mr. Berret, his father's a doctor." Avery said.

"Oh. I thought he was a serial killer."

"One little drink isn't going to hurt him." Nikki said annoyed.

"It's locked." Max yelled.

"Make believe that you're a criminal. See what you can figure out."

Nicole couldn't help but chuckle at that. She put her hand over her mouth to hide her smile.

"Whiskey, rocks if you got it."

A few seconds later Max came back with some drinks. He helped Charlie with his drink then went to Nicole.

"Here you go."

"Th-"

"She's got that thing to take care of, she doesn't need any."

"Brett, you better shut the hell up before I slap you into the next century." Nikki growled out.

"Charlie can have all that he wants."

"You're a doctor now?" T.K went up to Brett. "He's all yours now doctor." He said before walking off.

Nikki looked behind her to see Ira having trouble with the vacuum.

_Boys._ She thought and turned back around.

Nicole didn't even realize Max picked Tyler up and was sitting next to her until she looked to her left. she put her glass on the table and looked at Max.

"Was he whining?"

"Not really but he was moving around a lot."

Nikki extended her arms and Max handed Tyler over.

"That's because his diaper needs changed." She said as she felt the wet diaper.

"Better go do that somewhere else."

"No shit Sherlock." She said to Brett.

"Why do you always have to be an ass to her and the baby?" She heard Avery ask Brett as she made her way upstairs.

She went into the bathroom and changed Tyler's diaper, threw it away and headed back down the stairs. When she reached the living room she heard T.K's annoying pager going off.

"What are you doing?" Ira asked Brett.

"What the fuck does it look like I'm doing? I'm calling him back."

"Not from that phone you're not. It'll show up on my old man's bill."

"Jesus Ira you're unbelievable. What do ya want a fucking quarter?"

"He will know that we were here."

Brett threw a red vase down on the floor, smashing it into several pieces. Tyler started crying hysterically and Nicole glared at Brett while trying to calm the baby down.

"It's ok Tyler, mommy's here. It's not our fault that Brett is a freaking jackass." She said as she left the living room.

Tyler calmed down a few minutes later so she went back into the living room.

"They found her." Max said happily to Nikki.

"That's great she said faking a smile.

She was glad that Charlie's guys found Elise but that meant less time for Max to hang around with her.

"Is it happy hour?" Charlie asked.

"I'd say it is. I mean he did help you guys find Elise. It's the least you guys could do." Nicole said to the boys before winking slightly at Charlie.

She knew she had all her guy friends wrapped around her finger to a degree, except for Brett. Max started rolling Charlie into another room while T.K rolled the IV holder next to the chair and everyone else followed.

"What can I get ya?" Max asked going to the loaded liquor cabinet.

"Give him a shot and a half of whiskey." T.K said.

"Oh my God. What have you done? What did you do? I can't believe what you did. I can't believe you did that." Ira's voice came from the doorway then he went to Max.

"What?"

"You drank my father's liquor. That's what you did. Gimme this."

_For Christ sake already Ira._

"I don't think he'll hardly notice Ira." Avery said.

"Oh no. Duh. Look at that. What is that? huh? He marks the levels of the bottles at the end of every summer."

"Please tell me you're joking." Nicole said.

"Oh my God, he does." Max said examining the bottles.

"Of course he does. A lot of people do that. Oh my-look at this. Will you look at this. Look at that. Huh? Why don't you guys just stab me in the fucking back right now? Huh?" Ira turned around. "Stab me in the fucking back right now."

"Relax Ira." Max said as the doorbell rang.

"Who's here?" Nikki asked.

Brett went to the shaded window quickly and looked out.

"This place was supposed to be deserted. It's like God damn Woodstock."

"Who is it?" Avery asked.

"A fucking cop." Brett answered.

_Great._

"Don't answer it." Brett said when he saw Ira moving out of the room.

"What do you mean don't answer it? I have to answer it. If I don't they'll call the cops, ok? Then the cops will call my father then he'll be here. Then we'll al be dead, alright? Sorry, I already am dead. Thank you."

"Ira."

"What?

"Get him away from the door." Avery said.

"What? How?"

"Get him away from the door." Brett snapped quietly.

"Ira."

"What Nikki?" He sighed out with annoyance.

"Your coat."

He scrambled in taking his coat off before going to the door.

_This is going to be a really long night with the five of them trying to be criminals._


	3. Chapter 3

While Ira was distracting the security officer or whatever he's supposed to be the group snuck past and went into another room. Charlie was gagged with his own neck tie and he still was making noises.

"Shut him the fuck up." Max hissed lowly as he shut the door.

"Shut up." Brett said in a low threatening voice.

"What the hell are you doing?" Nikki lowly asked Brett who had a gun to Charlie's head.

"What does it look like I'm doing?! You better keep him quiet." He whispered harshly.

"Just shut up. Everybody shut up." Avery said.

"What's going on?" She asked T.K and Max while she readjusted Tyler on her hip.

"He's doing a walk-through. Apparently it's standard procedure." Max said.

"Meaning he'll check this room." Nicole stated.

"What are we going to do?" Avery asked.

T.K's pager started going off at the wrong time.

"Turn it off." A chorus of them said to T.K.

Everybody started scrambling to places. T.K was taking off his bloody scrub shirt while Avery was taking out bottled beer and they sat down at the table. Brett stayed by Charlie to keep him quiet. Nikki sat down on a chair and started bouncing Tyler up and down on her knee gently. Max quickly took the six pack as the door started to open.

"Ira, what's wrong with you? You got us light beer. Hey, how'a doing?" Max said to Ira then the security officer.

The officer looked around the small group.

"Whoa. Everything ok?" Max asked the officer.

"Central, all clear. Make this run a non-call." He said through his walkie. "You might want to have East State come out and take a look at your security system, sir. There could be a short somewhere."

"Right."

"But you never know." The officer said.

"Thanks man." Max said.

Ira flipped Brett off and escorted him out. Everybody let out a sigh of relief. Then Ira came back into the room.

"Is that my father's gun? You know that we're not allowed up in my parents' bedroom. What are you thinking going through their things?" He asked Brett.

"Shut up Ira, I wasn't going through anything. I know where the gun is-everone knows where the gun is. You show us every fucking summer and I thought we might need it as you can see. And we did."

"Ok. Fine. Now go put it back now."

"Sorry Holmes, the gun stays." Brett said tucking it in the back of his pants.

_Great just what we need, him having a gun._

"Now what?" Nikki asked.

"We go back to the living room." Brett said snidely to her.

All of them went back into the living room. Nikki put Tyler in his playpen and she sat down on the covered couch with an exhausted sigh. Avery and Brett were playing pool and Max made himself a drink then sat down in a chair chewing on a straw.

Nikki always knew when he was nervous or exhausted, he'd start chewing on something.

"How 'bout we put our heads together, figure this out. Guys.., c'mere." Charlie said to Avery and Brett.

"What?" Brett said as he sat in front of Charlie.

"Can anybody tell me anything that could help?"

"Nothing we haven't already told the police."

"Cops. Fuck them. Tell me."

"Uh, we were going to go into the city, hit a couple of parties, hit a couple clubs, and, uh...Max and Lisa were supposed to meet us at midnight. And midnight came and they never showed up.

"You were with the girl?"

"That's right."

"Was there something going on?"

"Elise is Max's girlfriend." Nicole said.

"Really? How long?"

"Yeah, we been together almost a year. What does that tell you?"

"I didn't know that. So you tell me everything that happened that night."

"I told it a thousand times."

"I didn't hear it that time. Tell me again." Charlie said.

Nicole got up and picked Tyler up. She started to walk out of the living room when Charlie called out.

"Where are you going? He was about to tell us the story."

"I'm going to try to put my baby boy to sleep again."

"Alright. But hurry back."

She gave a small smile and left the room and went upstairs. Nikki sat on the bed and put a bottle in Tyler's mouth and he started drinking. Five minutes later he was out cold so she put him on the bed, making sure he wouldn't fall and then left. She went back into the living room and heard Brett ask Charlie,

"What do you think?"

He said quiet and looked at everybody that was in the room. T.K came in and checked Charlie's vitals.

"Dr. Mengele, what happened? Chop off another finger?"

"No, why?"

"'Cause I don't feel good."

"It's just the medication. It can tend to make you feel a little nauseous. I'll cut it back some."

"Good."

Hey, Brett, I'm gonna need to elevate his arm."

"And untie it? No. No way."

"If T.K doesn't elevate the arm Charlie will bleed to death you fucking dumbass." Nikki growled out.

"Watch what you say to me."

"Or what Brett? What are you going to do? Finally hit me like you promised six and a half months ago?" She taunted.

"Bitch." He muttered.

"Sorry, I've got too." T.K said breaking up the verbal fight.

"Go ahead." Brett said to T.K while coming over. "Don't give me a reason to use this Charlie, and you got nothing to worry about." He said pulled out the gun.

Nikki bit her tongue to keep her comment to herself.

_Does he really think that gun scares him? If Charlie wanted to he could kill you while he's taped to the chair._

Nicole hung her head when she heard Tyler let out a wail. She got up to fetch him again. Nikki went back down and into the living room.

"Sweetie, you've got to get some sleep." She said to Tyler as she said on the couch.

She cuddled him for a few minutes until he calmed down. When Tyler was finally calm she put him in his playpen and he started chewing on his teething ring.

"Your little tyke is cute. What's his name?"

She turned towards Charlie giving him a questioning look. Should she tell him Tyler's name, he was a famous mobster after all. What happened if he went after Tyler for some reason? But he was just a baby, so why would he want to kill an innocent and helpless child?

"Thank you. He's names Tyler."

"Good name. I'm going to take a guess and say that one of the guys is his father."

"You're right. Brett is the father."

"If you don't mind me askin', but was he always so...hotheaded and irrational?"

"Sort of, but never like this."

"Was he always mean to you?"

"No. Not until he got what he wanted." She mumbled and looked over to Tyler to see him passed out. "We dated for three years and when I finally gave myself to him he dumped me. He didn't even care that I was pregnant with his own son."

"I'm sorry to hear that. So do think that he would do anything to jeopardize someone's life?"

"Brett? No. He's all talk, he wouldn't kill anybody. He'd probably hit somebody if they were harassing his friends but that it. Why do you ask?"

"Well my informant and I have concluded that the kidnapping is an inside job."

"You're saying that one of us had something to do with this?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not saying that you had anything to do with it. But did you like Elise?"

"She's like a sister to me. I wouldn't ever think of doing anything to her."

"Alright. You seem pretty smart. Did you go to college?"

"Yeah, until Tyler came. I was studying to be a fashion designer."

"A fashion designer." He said surprised.

"Yeah. I've always wanted to be in fashion in some way." She said standing up. "I'm going to go check on the guys."

"Alright."

She started to leave but Charlie stopped her.

"Remember what I said. And Brett still hasn't came back with my water or T.K."

"I'll get it for you." She said with a small smile and nod.

When she entered the kitchen the guy were in the room.

"Want some?" Max asked squirting spray cheese on a cracker.

"Sure."

He went up to her and held the cheesy cracker out.

"Open."

She did and he put the cracker to her lips. She took a bite of it while he ate the rest of the cracker.

"By the way Charlie still hasn't gotten the water he asked for, Brett, T.K." She said going to the fridge.

"Just water ok?" T.K said.

"Alright." She said looking at T.K confused before leaving the room.

The reason being is I think Charlie's an alcoholic."

"No way." Brett said sarcastically.

"Well, an alcoholic's liver does not produce vitamin K."

Nicole's color started to disappear.

"Which means?" Brett asked.

"Did you fail health class or something?" Nicole asked Brett. "You need vitamin K to help clot blood so you stop bleeding out." She said looking at his face. "Think about it Brett. You guys chop off his finger and he has no Vitamin K to clot the blood. What do you think's going to happen?"

"Is he going to bleed to death?" Avery asked half joking.

"Bingo." She said before walking out of the kitchen.

She heard Ira ranting as she went back into the living room.

"Here ya go." She said helping him with the water.

Tyler woke up crying in pain, before she got to him Max had him in his arms trying to sooth the little boy.

"What's wrong little man?" Max asked Tyler softly.

"Your boy ok?" Charlie asked Nikki.

"Yeah. He's just teething. I've tried everything to ease the pain but nothing's working."

"Have you tried freezing some cut up fruit. The taste will distract them from the pain and the hardened fruit will help the tooth go through the gum."

Max handed Tyler to Nicole and went to Charlie to loosen the tape a little.

"I'll have to try that. Thanks Charlie."

"Better."

"Yeah. Thank you." He said.

"I'll take the little man for you." Max said to Nicole.

"You sure."

"Yeah."

She handed him over and Tyler happily played with Max's tie.

"She must be some kind of woman."

"Who's that?" Max asked. He didn't know if he was talking about Nikki or Elise.

Yes, he loved both Nikki and Elise. But as time passed with Elise he wasn't really feeling that he was in love with her anymore. He fell in love with Nicole a long time ago and was pretty much using Elise to hide his true feelings.

"Elise. Beautiful, huh?" Charlie said.

Nicole walked out of the living room and went into the kitchen.

"Ira do you have any bananas or apples?"

"Yeah." He said getting up and retrieved a banana.

"Thank you." She said.

Nikki started cutting half of the banana into pieces while eating the other half. She didn't notice until she turned around to see that her and Brett were the only one's in the kitchen. She looked at him and saw a certain look on his face.

_What the hell does he want?_


	4. Chapter 4

Nicole put the cut up bananas in the freezer and threw the banana peel away. She could still feel Brett's eyes on her, she was not going to start the conversation first.

"Nicole." He said getting up and going over to her.

She chose to ignore him just like he ignored her when she told him the baby news.

"Nicole, I'm sorry that I hurt you." He said pinning her in between him and the counter. "I'm still in love with you."

Nikki gave at a snort.

"Yeah, ok. You need to come up with better lines. You know how many times I've heard you say that to other girls?"

He turned her around roughly so she could face him.

"Nikki, how come you won't let me see my son?"

"I never said you couldn't. You chose not to."

"Why are you letting Max do things for our son?"

"Because he's helped out more than you have. Now if you would so kindly let me go-"

"Don't let him hold that boy again."

"Brett, you have absolutely no say in this. You weren't there through the pregnancy, he was. Now let go of me."

He didn't let her go, he just tightened his grip on her wrist. Nikki took hold of Brett's attacking arm and hit a pressure point. He let go quickly while hissing in pain.

"Bitch."

"Consider yourself warned, Brett." She said and walked out of the kitchen.

She was about to enter the living room but she stopped in her tracks.

"What about Nicole?"

"She seems like a sweet girl too. And judging by the way you've been acting around her and her boy, it seems you like her too." Nikki heard Charlie say to Max.

"I guess you could say something like that."

_He likes me too?_

"We've been friends for a while now. I'd do anything for her just so she could be safe and happy."

Nicole's heart felt like it stopped when those words came out of his mouth.

"You going in there Nikki?"

She jumped and came face to face with T.K.

"Don't do that!" She said before walking back into the kitchen to get the fruit then went into the living room.

Nikki sat on the couch and Max sat next to her with Tyler on his lap.

"Here ya go baby boy." She said handing Tyler a frozen banana slice.

Charlie observed the scene in front of him. The baby took the banana slice and stuck it in his mouth immediately. Max put his right arm behind Nikki on the back of the couch while his left arm held the baby securely on his lap. Charlie noticed the way Max smiled at Tyler and Nicole, it was sincere and loving. The way Max talked to Tyler, like he was his own child. There was no doubt about it Max was in love with Nicole.

Nikki jumped slightly when there was a clap of thunder then the lights went out. Tyler started whining from the loud noise. The only light source was coming from the fireplace.

"It's alright little man." Max said soothingly then cursed under his breath.

"Oh, that's spooky." Charlie muttered.

The others were chattering and coming to the living room. T.K went to Charlie while Avery and Ira stayed behind Brett, which had the gun pulled out.

"What's going on?" Max asked.

"Must be the storm. Ira, where's the fuse box?" Brett asked.

"I don't know."

"How do you not know? You live here." Nikki said.

"It's outside... somewhere."

"How 'bout you go check it out?"

"What, alone?"

"I'll go with you. I got to get my shoes." T.K said.

Nicole saw Tyler yawn and relax into Max's chest.

"You want me to take him? He's about to fall asleep." She said softly.

"Nah. He's fine." Max said re-adjusting Tyler so the baby could be more comfortable.

Ten minutes later Tyler was out having a little arm spasm while he slept. Max looked down and smiled then looked out Nicole.

"Little man is out." He said bringing Tyler closer to his chest before standing up.

"Maybe he'll finally stay asleep." She said getting up and motioned for Max to follow her.

He followed her up the steps and into a bedroom that Tyler had been using. He set the baby down gently in the middle of the king sized bed and covered him up. Max stood up and saw Nikki leaning on the door frame watching.

"Nikki, we need to talk." He said quietly.

She nodded and pointed to the dresser. He looked and saw the baby monitor was on. Him and her walked out of the room and he shut the door.

"What is it Max?" She asked softly.

"Nikki, I made a mistake."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is I'm in love with you, not Elise. I know, I'm a fucking prick for using her but I thought that dating her would make my feelings go away for you, but they haven't. The truth is I've liked you since fifth grade."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I-I don't know. Maybe I was scared of rejection."

"Max, I have a feeling where this is going but you're still with Elise. We can't-"

"As soon as we get her back I'm breaking it off with her. Talking with Charlie earlier made me realize the mistake I made and I'm going to fix it." He said gently touching her cheek. "I love you Nicole. I want to be with you and help you take care of Tyler."

Nikki couldn't form any words all she could do was kiss him while she let out joyful tears. Max pulled her closer to deepen the kiss and she pulled him to her. He pushed her gently against the wall with their lips still locked.

"I promise..." Kiss. "That I'll..." Kiss. "Be there..." Kiss. "For you and..." Kiss. "Ty no matter what." He finished then kissed her more passionately.

Max started to kiss down her neck slowly with little gentle nips along the way, making her moan softly. He pulled her to the bathroom with him and shut the door. Once the door was shut he pinned her to the door. Nikki wrapped her arms around Max's neck as he hoisted her up and wrapped her legs around his waist. He started kissing her again this time nibbling on her bottom lip and she allowed him access. Max held her tightly as he made his way to the sink and sat her on it. He was jolted back into reality when he felt her hands slowly go under his shirt and up his lean stomach.

"Nikki. We can't do this here." He breathed out.

Nicole let her hands fall from under his shirt.

"I don't want our first time in a bathroom."

"Me neither." She said breathlessly.

He helped her off the sink and kissed her lips before putting her back on the floor.

"But promise me that when we do have sex that you'll use protection. I don't think I'm ready for another baby."

"I promise Nikki." He said with a smile.

Max opened the door so they could leave the bathroom. They headed down the stairs and Nikki headed to the kitchen to get something to snack on while Max went to make himself a drink.

Nicole sat down at the kitchen table eating Lay's original potato chips slowly. It felt so right with Max kissing and touching her. With Brett it was different, he knew how to make her squirm and feel good but it didn't feel right. Maybe she was using Brett too, covering up her love for Max. And look how that turned out, she got pregnant by Brett and he left her. When Max said those things to her upstairs she knew that he meant every word.

"Hey Nikki?"

She looked and saw T.K coming in the kitchen.

"What?"

"You have to promise not to tell." He said sitting next to her.

"What?" She repeated again.

"I think there's an inside player with Elise's kidnapping." He said quietly.

"Really now?" She mocked surprise.

"Yeah, but I'm going to figure this out, so don't tell anyone."

"T.K do you really think I'm that freaking stupid? Charlie told me the same thing."

"He did. When?"

"Before I got him the water that you and Brett weren't getting him. He's weeding us out T.K. If anyone is going to find out, he is." She said putting a clothing clip on the chip bag and put it up.

She looked at T.K and sighed.

"I'm not calling you stupid T.K, I'm sure you'll figure it out too."

"Thanks. Do you have any ideas on who did it?"

She sat back down next to him.

"No I don't but I have thought about it. Let's start with Ira, if he done it he would've gotten caught already, he sucks at lying."

"Good point. So Ira's out of the question."

"Why would Avery have someone kidnap his own sister? He's got money and everything."

"True."

"Max, he's dating her so why would he do that?" She asked trying to keep her tone normal.

"That leaves Brett, me and you."

"You know she's like a sister to me so why would I do that?"

"Jealousy maybe." He said with a smirk.

Nikki blinked her eyes at him for an explanation.

"Brett was using the bathroom so I went upstairs to go and you two were talking in the hallway."

"Great. I'm not jealous of her and do you really think that I'd kidnap someone and risk Child services taking my son away?"

"Relax Nikki, I know you wouldn't do that. And your secret is safe with me."

"Good." She said getting up.

"What about me and Brett?"

"You, you're to smart to kidnap someone because if you do, you can kiss your doctor career goodbye. Brett on the other hand he seems pretty hostile tonight. I don't know if it's because I'm here or what."

"Let's head on back to the living room. Shall we?" He asked holding out his hand.

Nikki rolled her eyes playfully.

"You need to lay off of the drugs Teek." She said before walking to the living room.

When they entered she saw Ira filling the liquor bottles back up, Charlie was by the fire, Brett was drinking, Avery was shuffling cards, and Max was looking in his glass.

"Guys, if I don't bleed to death soon, I'm gonna die of boredom. How about we kill time instead?"

"What do you suggest? You're taped to a chair." Brett said.

"You guys could play poker, like you told Ira." Nikki said. "Teek wheel him into the dining room."

T.K wheeled Charlie into the dining room and the others followed. Charlie sat at the end of the table, Max was on his right, Nicole was next to Max and the others were on Charlie's left. Ira was helping Charlie play poker.

"I have a full boat." Charlie said.

Everyone exclaimed.

"That's a shame, Max. You know, forgive me saying so, but could it be, this is not your night?"

"Yeah, tell me about it." Max said trying to hide the fact that he and Nicole were practically together.

"You ever send a guy a newspaper with a dead fish in it?"

_Really Ira?_

"Shut the fuck up, man!" T.K said playfully.

"Ah, you got me mixed up with something from the movies, kid. People make that mistake. It must be my classic profile."

"Ira, shuffle the cards right." Avery said.

"I am."

"I thought you said you were practicing this at home."

"What difference does it make? We're playin' a game." Ira said defensively.

"Monkey-fuckin' football." Avery said, which caused Brett to chuckle.

"Brett. Join us. Take a chair."

"Pass."

"What's the matter, you might enjoy yourself? It's ok. You're allowed." Charlie lightly taunted.

"I don't wanna play with you Charlie. Rest of you fags wanna play, go ahead. Have fun."

"Ass." Nicole muttered under her breath.

She felt Max's hand rubbing her knee lightly from under the table trying to calm her down.

"Thanks, Brett, That's-" Max said taking his hand off Nikki's knee and gave a sarcastic thumbs up.

"No fraternizing, eh? Oh well. Have it your way."

Nicole laughed a little at Charlie when he rhymed the words.

"Ok, Brett's out. Five-card draw. Say, aces, deuces, one-eyed jacks and suicide kings are wild." Ira said dealing the cards.

"Ira, that's the whole deck." Max said.

"So what? It's my game, my rules."

"Ira, there's no challenge in that. That's like-"

"Gentlemen, keep in mind that the cards you hold in your hands are nothing but dumb luck. The difference between winning and losing is being able to read your opponent. That's why I'm still here. A number of times the only thing that kept me out of a satin box...was I could size up the other guy maybe half a second quicker than he could me." Charlie said cutting off Avery.

Nicole looked over at T.K giving him the 'He's profiling' look and T.K understood it.

"What the fuck are you talkin' about? You're taped to a chair. You saw us coming a mile away at the plaza. didn't you?" Brett said.

"I admit...I'm out of practice."

T.K and Nicole looked at each other again and she shook her head slightly. She knew what Charlie was doing, he was profiling right now.

"Ira...give me four cards."

"Oh, sorry, sir. No offense."

"Well, you gave me six." T.K said putting two cards on the table.

"Take Ira, for example. I trust Ira."

"You do?"

"We're playin' poker. He's losin' his shirt. Yet, Ira's eyes don't float. He's got his sense of fair play. As we all know, Ira can't bluff his way out of a paper bag. I can tell you his bet before he could."

"Well, could you? 'Cause I could use the help here, Charlie. Ya know."

"Look at Avery. He's havin' a tough time hatin' me. Let me tell ya, you have to have a real hate-on to do what you did to me. Integrity keeps gettin' in Avery's way."

"Now he wants us to believe he's a mind reader."

_You are so stupid Brett._

"That's right." Charlie said to Brett.

"I fold." Ira said.

"Ira, no one opened." Max said after he took a drink.

"Sorry."

_Why is Ira acting so skittish._

"I'll open." T.K said.

"That makes sense."

"Fold."

"That also makes sense. How about Brett, control junkie? Brett can't leave anything to chance. Look at him. He wouldn't even play, unless he was looking across the table at a sure thing."

_Hit the nail right on the head._

"I don't have to take this shit. I'm outta here." Brett said before leaving the room.

"Brett, you go up to Tyler I'll cut your balls off. I'll know if you're up there and I'll know if you shut the monitor off." Nicole said warningly.

He scoffed and left the room.

"I thought he'd never leave."

"You're one-eighty off on Brett. He's a wild man. We're in Atlantic City, I had to lock him in a room."

"Why?" Nikki asked curiously since she didn't take that road trip with them.

"What happened? He dropped a few quarters in the slots?"

"Huh! About fourty-eight thousand quarters." Ira mouthed off.

Nicole put her drink down and looked at Ira.

"Really?"

"Yeah. We drove down to Jersey on Memorial Day."

"Labor Day." T.K corrected.

"Whatever. Just shut up, ok? I'm tryin' to tell a story here."

"Ira?"

"What?" He said to Avery.

"You can't tell a story here. You can't tell a story anywhere. You screw it up every time."

"No, I do not."

"You're doing it now." Max pitched in.

"That's because you guys interrupt every time. I can't keep my place. I forget where I was."

"No, Ira. If you get the Goddamn story straight, we wouldn't have to interrupt you to get the Goddamn story straight."

"Ok, we get it. Will someone please just tell the story already." Nikki snapped.

"I was telling the story." Ira whined.

"Just shut the fuck up. I'll tell it. You fuck it up every time." Max snapped.

"Maxie, calm down and start the story already.

She knew that Max hated that name. Ever since they were in second grade he hated it. He gave her a pointed look and she gave a stern look back.

"Nikki, you know how much I hate that. Don't call me that."

"Then calm down and tell the story."

"It was Labor Day, Ira, Like T.K said. It was scorchin' outside, it was so fuckin' hot. Don't you remember that? The room was freezin' though. You could hang meat in this room, it was so damn cold. It was good for business, right? It keeps you awake. We're poundin' sauce. Free booze. What they lose on that they make up on Johnny Walker judgment. And it's getting late, really late. The sun's about to come up. We'd all lost our shirts. Maxed out the plastic. Except for Brett. "Brett's winnin' like, huge. That's when it happened. Changing of the guard. Word had it they brought this guy in from Vegas after two suicides. It's the guy they brought in to cool the table down. You know what they called him?" Max said taking a drink before continuing.

"What? The masked money stealer?" Nicole asked sarcastically.

"Close. The Widowmaker. What a little shit this guy was. It's like the kid that reminds the teacher about the homework assignment."

"I hate those kind of kids." She mumbled.

"Well, that's this kid grown up. Anyway. Bret's twenty-two grand ahead, so I figure it's safe to go to the john, right? Wrong. Gone five minutes, I come back he's down twelve. I try talking him into changing tables, but he takes out a marker. You fuckin' believe that? Right then Avery walks up. He's just got done sweatin' out the Georgetown-Mississippi game, right? But at ten to one, he's come out five grand ahead. He takes one look at this little wimp, and he dumps his five Gs right on top of Brett's action. Ya see, two of these clowns, they're gonna take the Widowmaker's balls home and his luggage with one hand. So what does Brett the genius do?"

"Double down I'm guessing." Nicole said.

"Bingo. He doubles down. Widowmaker looked him right in the eye, and he drew one card."

"The guy, he's-he's got rocks the size of Rushmore." Ira said

"Afterwards, Brett takes his last two hundred bucks, he takes us all out for steaks the size of your foot." Avery added.

"What a guy. He drops twenty grand, he ain't got money left fo a bus ticket home, he takes you for steaks. It must be nice to have rich folks." Charlie said.

"You don't know his father. He's got the first nickel he ever made." T.K said.

"So, How's he gonna pay back the twenty large? The interest alone is enough to give you a nosebleed."

_Good question, how is he going to pay it back? Wait does that mean-_


	5. Chapter 5

"What are you doin'? What the fuck are you doin'?! No, no, no!" Brett said pushing T.K away from Charlie.

"You fucker! I was sittin' on a straight flush there!" Ira whined.

"Brett, will you relax? He doesn't have the blood pressure to walk around the room! Look at him, man! What are you worried about?"

"What I am worried about? We had a fuckin' plan! That's what I'm worried about! I want to stick to the plan!"

"Obviously the plans not working well if Charlie's bleeding to death ya dumbass."

"Stay out of it Nikki." Brett said through gritted teeth.

"You got me and my baby involved with this plan. So don't fucking tell me to stay out of it." Nicole said standing up threateningly.

Uh, maybe that's not all you're worried about, huh?" Ira said jumping in.

"What the fuck does that mean Ira?"

"Go ahead, T.K. Ask him?"

"Ask me what?"

"Go on T.K." Ira said.

"Ask me what?" Brett said again.

"T.K."

"Shut up!" Brett said turning to Ira then back to T.K. "Ask me what?"

"Just answer this question, ok? All that money in Atlantic City that you lost-how were you gonna pay it back?" T.K asked calmly.

Brett had the deer in the headlights look. Max grabbed Nikki's hand and made her sit back down.

"Don't do anything stupid." He whispered in her ear before he let her hand go.

"Yeah, how are you gonna pay it back?" Ira taunted.

"None of your fuckin' business, Ira. Why?" Brett said through clenched teeth.

"Well, you see, it's been brought to Charlie's attention that one of us might be in on Elise's kidnapping."

"What?" He asked chuckling.

"Yeah. Well, that's how I felt ya know. But, you know, Maybe it's not that crazy. And uh, twenty thousand dollars is a lot of money." T.K explained.

"So, if you have nothing to hide, you should have no problem telling us how you were gonna pay it back, right?" Ira said bravely.

"Ira, you're my friend. Listen to me, shut the fuck up! Shut up!"

"You set Elise's kidnapping up didn't you? Just so you could get the money!" Nikki said shocked.

"He sounds guilty to me."

"Ira." T.K warned.

"Fuckin' faggot! Come here!" Brett said going after Ira.

Ira ran around the table for safety and Avery caught Brett. Max put a hand on Nikki's thigh to keep her in place.

"Hey, Brett! Come on."

"Avery, Avery. Don't tell me you're buyin' into this fuckin' load of bullshit! Come on you guys, he's makin' up stories to save his own ass!"

"Brett, look, you calm down, alright? I don't think that anybody here is involved with Elise's kidnapping, alright? But I think that it might be time that we reevaluate our plan." Avery reasoned.

"Why? The plan's working, man. He fucking made the call. Why?"

"I think we should just let Charlie go."

"Me too."

"Ira, shut the fuck up."

"He's not doin' so well. We should get him to a hospital." T.K stated.

"What the fuck? I leave the room, you guys roll over like five-dollar whores or Nikki. You have a drink with the guy, next thing you know, he's the best man at your wedding. What the fuck did he do? Sprinkle fairy dust up your skirts? Come-" Brett stopped abruptly when his head turned the other way.

Nikki got up and slapped him so hard that her hand was stinging and his face had a clear distinct bright pink hand print.

"Brett, don't you EVER call me a whore again. Last time I checked I slept with one guy, you! And that was six and a half months ago! Two, don't be coming after all of us because they've got you cornered and you can't get out! If you ever go after one of them threateningly again or call me a whore I will rip off your dick and make you eat it. Then I'll take that gun that you have and shoot you. Do you understand me?" Nicole asked glaring at him.

Brett didn't know what to say. He manipulated her for the three years that they were dating. He'd never have thought that she would ever stand up to him like this. Nikki took hold of his tie and yanked on it.

"Do you understand?"

"Yeah. Now let go of me."

"I don't have a hold of you. I have a hold of your tie, dumbass. And if you wake Tyler up, I'm going to beat the living shit outta you."

"Let's go." T.K said grabbing her arm and pulling her away from Brett.

He made her sit next to Max again.

"Stay put." T.K said firmly then went back to Brett.

"Nikki, calm down." Max whispered while he run his hand up and down her thigh soothingly.

"Avery, come on, this your sister's life we're talking about, man. What the fuck?" Brett said.

"Man, look at us. Look at us. We cut his fuckin' finger off! Man, you're walkin' around with a gun! This isn't us. We're no better than he is."

"Tell Elise that." Brett said and started walking away.

"He had nothing to do with Elise's kidnapping. He had nothing to do with it. Can't you understand that? He didn't do anything!"

"It doesn't matter! We're all a like. Whoever did the actual kidnapping-it's fucking technicality!"

"Yeah. Go ahead. Look that up in the constitution." Max butted in.

"Max, shut up." Brett said.

"D-" Nicole started but stopped when Max squeezed her thigh in warning.

"He's not guilty." T.K said.

"But he's responsible, man. Come on. Let me tell you something. The best soap in the world won't wash the scum off this guy's hands. I promise. Let me enlighten you, Avery, about your new friend here Charlie; about what he's really like. You want to tell him about the dogs or should I?"

"No, you're going good."

"Jump in any time. About a year ago, Charlie had a house in Jersey. He moves in. Next door neighbors have dogs. Two dogs? They're barkin' all night long. Charlie goes over, the nice guy that he is, asked them to keep the noise down. Next night after that, same fuckin' dogs-bark, bark, bark. All fuckin' night long. Next night after that and the next night after that, until one night-nothin' man. Silence. No more noise. Cops got there about a week later. Found the dogs, the dogs were fine. Happier than pigs in shit, munchin' on top sirloin. The neighbors-Avery, the neighbors-they never fuckin' found. Ok? Gone. How am I doin', Charlie? Is that right?"

"Almost."

"Bet that was a rumor. He's not involved with the mob anymore." Avery reasoned.

"Oh, give me a fuckin' break! How do you think he was able to find your sister with one phone call? One call. Coincidence? Come on."

Everybody was silent waiting for Charlie to explain.

"Your friend is right. It's not a coincidence. I was able to contact the right people, the way you counted on. It's a good thing for you that I am who I am and I do what I do and I know who I know otherwise, your princess would be chopped up and in the blender by now." I'll tell you somethin' else; even after what you did to me, I kept my part of the bargain. No more. Who do you think you're dealing with? Guess again. You want to know what else I could do with one phone call? How about I have your ass made into mincemeat?"

Nicole shivered in fear, why did the boys have to go and get someone who was going to kill them all.

"I'll tell you what in fact happened with my neighbors. It's got nothing to do with barking dogs. That family, way back, did something...vicious to mine. Everything your pal Brett said is true, except he left out one detail; those dogs-it was not steak they were eating."

Nikki became horrified, she started having a panic attack.

"Nikki, what's the matter?" Max said worriedly as he took his hand off her thigh.

T.K went to her quickly and kneeled in front of her.

"Nikki, it's going to be ok. Just relax and take slow deep breaths, alright." He said. "Nikk's c'mon quit breathing like you're in labor and breath slowly." T.K said as he started to breath slowly with her. "That's it. Slow deep breaths." He said as he stood slowly.

His pager started going off when he stood fully. He looked at it and sighed.

"Guys, it's for him."

T.K and Brett wheeled him back into the living room. Max took Nicole's shaky hand and led her into the room and sat her down on the couch while the others came in.

"Charlie, are you there?" A voice came through the phone's speaker.

"Yeah."

"good news; the terms have been offered and accepted. These guys are gonna make sure the money is in play, that I'm gone and nobody's watching us, and then they're gonna drop the girl off at the emergency room at the Lennox Hill Hospital. Ya got that? And Charlie I'll be fronting you the money. I know you're good for it. Just remember, the banks don't open till ten so don't be dying on me. Remember, I'm a lawyer. I got friends in Hell. So what? Is it still a go, or what?"

"One second. You wanna play...still?...Good. Now we play my way. I give my friend the go ahead. You tell him where we are. I want my own driver waiting outside that door. So's you got no opportunity whatsoever-crap out on your part of this."

"Max." She said going into panic again.

"I'm right here." He said sitting next to her and hugging her lightly.

"Forget it Charlie. You're going to have to trust us."

"No. You trust me. Well, how 'bout something nearby?"

"Yeah, not here."

"A hotel."

"Yeah, good." Ira said.

"Hmm? Restaurant. Gas station. No comment?"

Silence.

"Marty, call the whole thing off."

"No. No, please."

"Middlebury Inn. It's a half-mile away. It's in Montauk. It's got a coffee shop." Brett said rubbing the back of his neck.

"Middlebury Inn. Montauk. Got that?"

"The Middlebury Inn. Ok, so how do I get there?"

"How do you get there?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah, it's easy. Take 124th street to-" T.K started then the guys started arguing about directions.

"You ok?" Max asked softly.

"Yeah. Thanks."

He took hold of her hands and kissed her knuckles on her right hand before getting up.

"Just shut up, shut up." Max stated with annoyance.

"Charlie, who do you got there? The New York taxi drivers' union?"

"Take Central Park West to Parkway Central to Lennox then to 125th; 125th to the Tribrough Bridge, the Central Park Expressway or the Southern States. Your choice. Let's just get this over with." Max snapped.

"You got that?"

"Yeah, I got it. Take care of yourself brother."

T.K hit the end call button and Nikki looked over at Charlie. She didn't like that look on his face at all.

_Why is he looking at Max like that?_

"Good. So, she's ok?" Avery asked.

"Yeah."

"Thank you, Mr. Barret."

"Anytime, kid. I must say that those were terrific directions, Max."

Nicole looked over at Max, who was standing near the fireplace trying to collect himself.

"Turns out you're some kind of Eagle Scout. I had no idea you spent that much time uptown."

"I used the library up there to do some studying at Columbia sometimes."

"You got balls, kid. I'd hate to get stuck up there alone, especially at night. It happened to me once. When I was a kid, I started out taking bets, making collections for numbers. All of the five boroughs. I ran my ass off. I knew every street upside down and backwards, but I'd never been that far uptown before. I fell asleep on a subway and missed my stop. I come out, I looked around. To me it was like...I landed on, uh-what Max said-the dark side of the moon. Yeah."

Nikki got up from the couch and stood by Max, Charlie was creeping her out more.

"I'm sorry. I'd love to sit around and reminisce, but can someone tell me the point of this fuckin' memoir?"

_Wow! Me and Brett thinking the same thing? Hell musta froze over._

"Well, I'm wondering how come a day and a half ago, Max can't navigate his way around Harlem with a Sherpa Guide, but tonight he knows the place like his backyard."

"I don't know what the Hell you're talkin' about, Charlie." He said walking over to the couch and sitting on the arm.

Nikki knew this action, he was getting defensive. But why?

"What I said. How could you get lost up there, as well as you know the place? Isn't that where you were with the girl when this happened?"

"Yeah? So? Like I said it was dark out. It was raining. It could happen to anybody. It happened to you. You said so yourself."

"Well, yeah, I was eight at that time."

"Don't tell me you're back on this inside player thing, Charlie." Brett said.

"I'm bleeding to death. Humor me."

"You wanna waste your breath? Go ahead."

"Well, one more question-how'd they know to find you there?"

"Look, how the fuck should I know?" Max snapped.

"We've all been through this with the police. I don't see how saying it one more time is gonna help anybody." Avery said.

"Cops can't find their dick with both hands. Or, maybe it happened differently. What do I know? I'm old. I'm tired. I'm a senior citizen."

"I think you had a little too much blood loss to the brain there, Charlie. Max mouthed off.

"Maybe. Maybe not. You know, Max, I understand how this could happen. I'm not sayin' it's ok it happened, but in a certain light it's not as crazy as it seems."

"What is he talking about Max?" Nicole said lowly, still standing by the fireplace.

"I don't know." He said looking at her apologetically. "I don't know what the fuck you're talkin' about Charlie." Max said looking at him with a poker face.

Tears welled up in her eyes. He was a part of the kidnapping, Charlie was right, it was an inside job. But why would Max do such a thing.

"Stay with me. See if it seems crazy don't start to make sense. See I know guys that could talk the virgin Mary into posing far a centerfold and make her think it was her idea in the first place. Let's say you owe these kinda guys something. Let's say you can't pay them back. Not now. So, they wear you down. They scare you pretty bad. They make you feel there's no way out of this mess you got yourself into. Then they tell you it's your lucky day. They're gonna do you a favor. Not a favor they'd do for anybody. Also if they tell you do what they say, nobody gets hurt. Am I gettin' warm?"

"You haven't moved from Mercury yet Charlie." Max said lowly.

Nicole knew better than that, she knew Charlie was close.

"I'm not far off Max, am I? By the time these bottom feeders finish turning dogshit into diamonds, you let yourself be talked into doing something you'd never do in a million years, Max. Huh? It could happen."

"Shut up, Charlie." Max said in warning.

"It does happen. And it starts off with the first bet or babe or snort, fix, whatever, until it becomes easy, and after that you don't feel nothin'...at all. Right? T.K?"

"You're full of shit, Charlie. You know that?" Max said.

"Tell 'em Max?" Brett said.

"Yeah. Tell me, Max."

"You don't know shit, Charlie, alright." Max said again.

"Your eyes are floatin', Max."

"Fuck you Charlie! You don't know who I am."

"You're guilty as shit, Max."

Nicole couldn't take it anymore, she wiped her eyes quickly and headed out of the room.

"Nikki, come back!" Max pleaded loudly.

She ignored him and went upstairs. Once she reached the top she locked herself into the bathroom and cried. Now two guys broke her heart, one meant it and the other didn't.

_What am I supposed to do now?_


	6. Chapter 6

Nicole was in the bathroom for a good twenty minutes before Tyler woke up. She went in the room and changed his diaper before taking him down to the kitchen to feed him. When she came down the stairs she saw Ira taped to a chair and a mess.

"What happened while I was gone?"

"Avery kidnapped his own sister." Ira said.

"Avery? But It thought..."

"I was helping him out. I'm so sorry Nikki." Max said sweeping up the last part of a vase then looked at her apologetically.

She couldn't stay mad at him for long, not when she looked him directly into his blue eyes.

"Do you forgive me?" He asked walking up to her with the broom and dust pan.

"Yeah." She sighed. "But if you ever do something like that again I won't be so forgiving."

"Hold on a minute. You forgive Max for being a part of a kidnapping but you won't forgive me for dumping you?"

"Yeah. Because you used me." She said before walking to the kitchen with Max right behind her.

Max put the broom up and stood behind Nikki.

"Hey there little man. Did you finally get some sleep?"

Tyler smiled up at Max and held his hands out to Max.

"You'd you look at that. His tooth finally broke through. You feel better?"

Max took Tyler so Nikki could dig through the diaper bag for some jar food. When she found it she popped the lid off and Max sat down next to her.

"So what's going to happen when we get Elise back?" Nikki asked giving her baby boy a small spoonful of baby goop.

"I'm going to break the engagement off with her."

"You proposed?"

"Yeah." He said almost shamefully. "It would've been a mistake. You're the only one that I want to marry."

"Max. Not right now. I'm exhausted. And everything that has happened in the past twenty-four hours has left me emotionally drained."

"I get it Nikki." He said putting a hand on her knee.

"So, Ira is taped to a chair because..."

"When Avery told everybody the truth, he went nuts. He broke half the vases in the living room and smashed the T.V."

"And all this time he was complaining about mud tracking through the house and us touching everything."

"I know."

The two of them laughed. Once Tyler was finished she made a little bit of formula and they went back into the living room. Max put Tyler in the playpen and Nikki put the bottle in there with him. She couldn't help but smile when she felt Max's hand on her lower back rubbing from side to side soothingly. He stopped and sat on the couch and Nicole followed. Brett got tired of hearing Ira talk so he just taped his mouth shut and Tyler whined when a clap of thunder sounded.

"It's ok sweetie." Nikki said soothingly.

"Ira. You are the man." Charlie said.

Then the power went out, again.

"Shit." Max muttered. "Again?"

"Go flip the breaker." Brett said to T.K.

"Why me?"

"Because you're the only one that knows where it's at." Brett said smartly.

"Fine." He sighed getting his shoes and leather jacket on before walking out the door.

"That's the second time. Ira your parents need to see why the electricity goes out so much." Nikki said.

Max put his arm on the back of the couch and rubbed Nicole's shoulder secretly. None of them knew that Max and Nicole were planning on getting together, except for T.K. The lights came back on and everyone silently celebrated. Nikki looked over at Brett and he was looking at the boy that was hitting a rubber duck with his teething ring. She couldn't figure out that look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Max whispered to her.

She motioned her head to Brett. Max looked at Brett and followed his eye line to the baby.

"Maybe he's finally considering to step up a little." He whispered.

"What the hell are you two whispering about over there?" Brett asked breaking his concentration from the little boy.

"Nothing." Nikki said flatly.

They heard the front door open, signaling that T.K was back. But Nikki felt that there was something off.

"Brett?" She said with a hint of concern.

"What wrong?" He asked softly.

_That's the first time he's spoke to me like that for a long time._

"Do you have that gun still?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Someone else is here."

"Nikki, you're paranoid." He said blowing her off.

"Brett I'm not paranoid."

"Everything's fine. Drop it Nikki." He said in a bored tone.

She looked at the doorway and saw T.K. Nicole gave him a concerned look and he confirmed it by moving his eyes to his peripheral vision.

"Guys! Guys!" He said trying to get their attention.

"Alright. Fuck! Jesus Christ." A voice came, alerting everybody.

"Yeah, huh..." T.K started then was pushed into the room.

There was a blonde guy that came from behind T.K and he had a gun. The guys got up, Nikki went to her son and Ira started panicking.

"Jesus fuckin' Christ! What are you guys, nuts? Drop the gun."

"No. You drop the gun." Avery said bravely while holding the gun.

"Drop the gun." The guy said again.

"Alright. Take it easy. That's Lono. He's a friend."

"Alright. I'm gonna blow your fucking friend's head off. Drop the gun."

"Don't put it down Avery." Brett said.

"Thanks Brett." T.K said.

"Avery put the gun down already. You're going to get us all killed." Nikki said.

"Put the fuckin' gun down."

T.K's pager went off and the guy got startled.

"Fuck is that?"

"It's-" Nikki started.

"Nothing, just-fucking girlfriend."

"Chickie. Call the woman back. Come on."

"Charlie, what do you want me to do?"

"Shoot..."

"No." T.K said backing away quickly.

"Him." Charlie finished.

Lono shot Brett in the leg without hesitation.

"Holy shit!" Nikki yelled out fearful for her and her son's life.

Tyler let out a shriek and Nicole picked him up quickly.

"Why the fuck is there a baby here?"

"He's my son ya dipshit." She snapped while cradling Tyler's head into her neck.

"Oh, fuck! Why me?!"

"It was your idea, Dunsky."

Brett howled in pain.

"You ok?" Lono asked Charlie calmly.

"Ah, so-so. Except for this." He said showing his extremely bandaged up hand.

"They cut your finger off? You fuckin' sick fucks. It's all this fuckin' rap shit, isn't it? Who's he?"

"That's Ira. That's my man. It's his house."

"Nice house."

Ira muffled a thank you to Lono.

"You're welcome." He said then looked at Nicole. "Cute kid too."

"Uh, thank you?" She said confused.

"Who's the dad?"

"You shot him." She said simply with a shrug.

"How can you just say that?! That guy just shot me!"

"And I care because why? You deserved it. Hell you deserve more." She said angrily.

She saw Lono raise his gun to Brett again.

"No! Once was enough. I finally got my baby calmed down."

He lowered it a little.

"Avery, put it down. You'll shoot yourself in the foot." Charlie said.

"I can't let you go."

"Charlie, what do you-come one. Let me fuckin' shoot this kid."

"Thank your lucky stars I don't let Lono do to you what he would like to do.

"Fuckin' 'A' right."

"You let Lono take me outa here right now, everything goes ahead like nothing changed."

"I can't let you go." Avery said again.

Nicole put Tyler back in the playpen and got a baby wipe.

"We don't have a choice." Max said while Nikki cleaned the blood off his hands.

"I got a gun in my hand! We have a choice!"

"No we don't Avery. Look at Lono, he's a sharp shooter and probably trigger happy too! Get it through your head that we're fucked Avery!" Nikki said.

"Smart girl." Lono said to Nicole then looked at Avery. "You wanna end up like your friend on the floor? Drop the gun. Get it over with."

"If we let him go, Elise is as good as dead."

"Christ Avery. We don't let him go, we're all dead, including Nikki and Ty. At least this way the three of them has got a shot."

And a shot sounded, making Tyler cry again. Nikki growled glaring at Lono before picking Tyler up again.

"Ok, here's the plan. I'm takin' Charlie with me to the hospital, ok? You'll get your sister back. Maybe you'll live to see graduation. Got it?" Lono said in more of an order tone then asking.

"What guarantee di I have if I let you go, you won't back out on the deal?"

"Avery...you got my word."

"Do you believe this fuckin' guy?" Lono asked.

Max walked up to Charlie and started taking the tape off.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm lettin' him go."

"Ah! At last. Obviously a graduate." Lono stated.

"No, you're not. I'm not kidding." Avery said cocking the revolver.

"Avery, you shoot him, you'll be dealing with a very angry female that will make your life a miserable hell. More than it is now." Nikki threatened.

"Avery, put the fuckin' gun down." Max said glaring at Avery. "What are you gonna do shoot me? Do whatever you gotta do, but I'm lettin' him go."

"The gun again. Can't you guys just play nice?"

"Drop the gun asshole." Lono said.

"Look, why don't you drop your gun." Max snapped, clearly irritated.

"I don't drop my fuckin' gun, Ok?"

"Ok." He sighed with annoyance.

Once he was done cutting the tape off Lono helped Charlie out of the house. Avery, T.K and Ira followed them out.

"You ok Nikki?" Max asked holding her elbows gently.

"I'll be fine when all of this is over."

"Why the hell are you touching her like that?" Brett groaned.

"None of your damn business Brett." Nikki snapped.

"You're cheating on Elise."

"No he's not."

"But there is something going on between you two? That's why you're letting him hold and play with my son, right?"

"Don't be bringing Tyler into this." Max snapped. "It's not my fault that you ran out on her when she needed you most. Guess who helped her out when she needed it? Me. So Ty is more of my son then yours."

Nicole put Tyler in his carrier and strapped him in while Max started taking the playpen down quickly.

"Have everything?" Max asked throwing the playpen strap on his shoulder.

"Yeah." She said putting the diaper bag on her shoulder.

She was about to pick up the carrier but Max stopped her.

"I got him."

"Ya sure."

"Yeah. Ready little man?" He asked smiling down at the little blonde boy.

He picked the carrier up just to spite Brett. Brett wasn't there for her through the pregnancy, he was. Max wasn't going to let Brett ruin him and Nikki's little family.

"Wait. What about me?" Brett called out.

Nikki and Max headed outside.

"Where are you goin'?" Ira asked.

"I gotta take Brett to the hospital and take these two home."

Nikki hugged Ira quickly before going after Max. When Max got the carrier strapped in Nikki got in the back with Tyler and Max got in the driver's seat and pulled up to the house. He got out to fetch Brett. A couple of minutes later him and Brett got in the car. The ride to Nikki's house was awkwardly quiet. When they arrived she took the carrier out along with the diaper bag and playpen.

"Need any help?" Max asked getting ready to get out of the car.

"No. I've got it. You need to get the jackass to the hospital."

"Alright. I'll see you in a bit."

"Ok." She said and walked into her apartment.

_Be safe Max. And as much as I hate you, please be ok Brett._


	7. Epilogue

**2 Months Later**

Max and Nicole had moved out of New York to Jacksonville, North Carolina. The two of them thought it'd be a great idea to start fresh. They rented an apartment together and the beach was about an hour and a half away from them. Tyler loved the sand and picking up seashells off the beach. Matter of fact the three of them were at the beach right now. Nikki was sitting on a beach towel under an umbrella watching the two boys that stole her heart make sand castles.

"Ready and..." She heard Max saw before turning over the kids pale quickly.

He slowly lifted it up and there was a perfect castle, no cracks and not crumbling. Tyler smiled while clapping his hands.

"You know, I was never able to make a perfect castle." Nikki called out.

"That's because you didn't have the right amount of moisture in the sand. And besides you know that I'm a way better builder than you."

"No you're not. Who's the one that can build a card tower? Hmm?"

"That's not fair, you switched the cards out so they wouldn't work for me."

"How could I do that if you used the same deck that I did?"

"I don't know, I'm still working on that." He said smiling at her. "Where are you going little man?" He asked Tyler when the boy got up and waddled to Nikki.

"Momma."

"What sweetheart?" She asked in a baby voice while extending her arms out.

Tyler went into her arms with a yawn.

"Seems like he's tired."

"Alright. I'll get everything packed, you go get him in the car." Max said kissing her lovingly.

"Sure you're able to handle it?" She asked getting up with Tyler in her arms. "I mean there's been a lot of girls watching you."

She had to admit he was looking pretty hot on the beach with wet hair, shirtless and a six-pack covering his stomach.

"You don't have to worry Nikki. You're the only one that I see." He said giving her a reassuring kiss.

She headed to their car and strapped Tyler in. A few minutes past before Max came to the car and loaded the things up. He started driving back home and the ride was peaceful.

When they got home about an hour and a half later Max carefully took a sleeping Tyler out of the car and told Nikki that he'd get the things later. Nikki went into the kitchen to start unpacking more things while Max layed Tyler down. Nikki was stretching to put a cup up on the shelf when a pair of arm circled around her waist and someone kissed her neck lightly before they rest their head on her shoulder.

"Max, I'm trying to put things up. We've been here three days and only the important stuff is unpacked." She said giggling.

"Can't it wait a little bit longer?" He asked with his lips softly touching her skin as he spoke.

She gently put the cup on the counter and turned to face him. He smiled down at her and gave her a kiss.

"What did you have in mind?"

"I have a couple of things in mind." He said slyly while taking her hand and gently leading her to their bedroom.

Nikki gave a final sigh while Max gave a final groan into her neck. He slowly rolled off of her sweaty body and gave her a long loving kiss. Nicole would've never thought that having sex could feel so good. Max was gentle, passionate, and put her needs and want before his. She knew that Max was the one for her. The two of them layed there a for a few minutes until they heard moving through the monitor.

"Looks like little man is waking up from his nap."

"Seems that way."

"Don't look so sad. We've got a lot more of that in the future." He said smiling at her.

"I'm not sad, just tired. And I'm going to hold you to that." She said smiling at him and got dressed again.

He chuckled and got dressed too. Nikki got Tyler out of his crib and put him on the floor.

"Did you have a nice nap?" She asked sweetly and in return got baby talk.

The two of them walked out of Tyler's room and Max came and picked him up.

"There's the little man." He said before tickling him before walking away with the boy in his arms.

"Max, Tyler's got to learn how to walk on his own feet." She scolded playfully.

"But Nikki-"

"No buts, he's got to learn sooner or later."

"Don't listen to her for now, she doesn't know what she's talking about." He said before putting the boy down onto the floor.

Nikki went into the kitchen to get something to drink when there was a knock on the door.

"Alright. Our pizza is here." Max said going to the door.

"Hey, there Charlie." Nicole heard Max say with a hint of nervousness. "Why don't you come on in."

She walked out of the kitchen and saw Charlie and Lono standing in their living room. She started to get scared, it wasn't a good sign when a mobster and his henchman showed upon your doorstep.

"Nice little place you got here, kids." Lono said.

"Thanks." Max said putting a protective arm around Nikki's waist.

"It took us a lot longer to find you two than expected." Charlie said. "Why's you guys move?"

"We wanted to live all that stuff in New York so we could start new and for my son's sake."

"How's Tyler doing?" Charlie asked nicely.

"He's learning how to walk and talk. I don't mean to be rude but why are you two here?"

"The money." Lono said.

"What money?" Nikki asked completely confused.

"The money your boyfriend conned Charlie out of."

"What's he-"

"I'll go get it." Max said letting Nikki go and heading to the bedroom.

"Momma."

Nikki turned around and saw Tyler standing there with his green and blue stripped blanket. She went to him and picked him up protectively.

"My, he has grown a lot in the past two months." Charlie commented.

Max came out of the room and handed them a briefcase. Lono opened it and it revealed a ton of cash.

"Max." Nikki gasped.

"I'm sorry. I was going to use it for me and Elise so we could get out of town and get married, but that didn't happen. I realized I was in love with Nicole so I broke it off with Elise."

Lono closed the lid and looked at Charlie for orders, he was like an attack dog.

"Well you broke it off with Elise for Nicole, what were you going to do with the money?"

"I was going to buy an engagement ring for Nikki so I could marry her, save some for the wedding, and the rest would go to Tyler for college." Max said truthfully.

Nikki was shocked at what she just heard come out of Max's mouth, Charlie was thinking about something and Lono scoffed.

"C'mon Charlie the kid stole your money. Let's just finish this."

"Would you really kill a woman and leave a baby without it's mother? And take away the guy that is practically a father to that woman's son?" Nikki asked challenging Lono.

"Max, be honest with me. Is that what you're really going to do?"

"Yes, sir."

"Lono." Charlie said motioning for the briefcase.

Lono opened it and Charlie took out four to five bundles of cash.

"That should get your son through college." Charlie said to Nikki then looked at Max. "And this should get you the perfect ring and throw the perfect wedding."

Nikki almost dropped Tyler from shock. They weren't going to die?

"Thank you Charlie." Max said gratefully.

"If I ever see you three again, I better see a big rock on her finger." Charlie warned.

"Trust me, you will." He said wrapping an arm around Nicole's waist. "Right Nikki?" He asked her looking at her hopefully.

"How can I say no to you and your beautiful blue eyes?"

He smiled at her and kissed her. Tyler squealed happily and started poking Max's face. They two of them broke a part with a chuckle.

"What is it little man?" He said taking Tyler.

"I wish you three the best of luck." Charlie said.

Nikki went to Charlie and kissed his cheek then kissed Lono's cheek before going back to Max.

"Thank you guys." She said happily.

"Nicole, if Max does anything wrong let me know. You're smart, you'll know how to find me."

"Don't worry Charlie, I'd never do anything to these two. Ever."

"Keep it that way." Charlie said with a little smile before escorting himself and Lono out the door leaving the new family undead and unharmed.


End file.
